Bomb scares disrupt schools

WEST BRANCH - A string of bomb threats disrupted West Branch-Rose City School class routines for two weeks last October.

Such was the intent of the threat-makers, of course.

But three months later - bomb-sniffing dogs and uncomfortable security restrictions a distant memory - the real disruption is emerging elsewhere. In Ogemaw Family Court, five children fingered in five bomb hoaxes last year have appeared for a battery of juvenile hearings this year. All five have pleaded guilty, under a plea offer, to four-year criminal felonies. They face sentencing late this month.

It doesn't matter that two of the offenders can't reach the floor from their courtroom seats.

Or that none - the oldest is 15 - planted a real bomb or even intended to harm anyone.

Or that the threats were feeble, such as the one-word "bomb" scrawled in an elementary school bathroom.

The rules have changed. Respect for the dead - from Columbine High School and Virginia Tech among others - demands that every threat gets answered, local and state authorities say.

"The difference is it's a post-Columbine world," Ogemaw County Prosecutor LaDonna Schultz emphasized during the recent round of pretrial hearings, echoing school authorities here. "You can't go back. Shame on us if we don't take bomb threats seriously."

Across Michigan, and the nation for that matter, school bomb threats continue to disrupt communities with wearisome frequency, authorities say. The incidence is far from its peak, which followed the 1999 school shootings at Littleton, Colorado's Columbine High School. But nine years later, the hoaxes still occur in Michigan almost daily, authorities say.

"It's happening more than people realize," said Lt. Shawn Stallworth, Michigan State Police Bomb Squad commander. "There's no common reporting method to accurately show it. But the numbers are high. I read about it daily ..."

The Michigan Department of Education, too, concedes that school district reporting on bomb threats is uneven at best, even though post-Columbine law now requires it. Most districts, for example, report serious bomb threats to the state education agency. But many use their own discretion in reporting less threatening hoaxes, for example, one communicated by a note on the ground, state safety coordinators say.

Within school walls, however, staff and administrators respond to bomb scares more forcefully, regardless of the threat's credibility, administrators emphasize.

"We take every threat as real. We have to," said Marty Gottesman, Bay City Public Schools student services director. "In every case, police will be called in. We will investigate, and we'll take our response lead from police."

In the era of zero tolerance, decisions about school risk no longer belong to schools alone, Gottesman and others explain.

"It's a team approach, always," agreed Doug Trombley, Essexville-Hampton Public Schools assistant superintendent. "You get someone with expertise. In the case of bomb threats, that's the police. They're an extension of our schools today."

A community disrupted

Across Michigan, hundreds of times yearly, a bomb threat is made, school communication chains are activated and crisis plans enacted. The plans call for police response and searches, security measures and, if warranted, student evacuation.

Such crisis blueprints grew from post-Columbine legislation that required Michigan's Department of Education to adopt a model emergency management plan. Since then, districts statewide have created their own community-wide plans, state educators say.

"The ripple effect of today's bomb scare is big," agreed Bob Higgins, Department of Education Safe Schools consultant. "Even when schools remain in session, a threat is going to eat up a lot of police time and a lot of (school) administrative time. When you include notifying parents and the whole public relations end, you see that a threat really disrupts a community, not just a school."

In the case of West Branch-Rose City Schools, all four district buildings received threats last October. The most serious, left in a girl's high-school bathroom, prompted strict, week-long restrictions. Students had one building entry and exit, hallway access was restricted, bathroom trips required an adult escort, bags and backpacks were banned, students' coats searched daily and after-school activities canceled, administrators said.

"We literally had parents coming into the high school to volunteer because all the extra security made it like a prison to manage," said Cathy Zimmerman, parent of an Ogemaw Heights High School student and Board of Education president. "I spent four days volunteering, and I saw that the kids were as frustrated as anyone. No students were laughing. They were angry at the students who put them in that position."

Of the five caught, one was a 15-year-old high school student, three were in middle school and one, age 9, was a third-grader. All five wrote "copy-cat" threats, modeling the original threat found in a girl's high school bathroom, authorities said. Police have yet to catch its maker.

Regardless, the Board of Education expelled all five "copy-cats" the day each was caught, last fall, administrators said. Three months later, the three youngest are eligible to return to school as of this month. Two others are expelled for the year. They'll be eligible to request reinstatement next fall, but each must first show, as the three youngest have, that they've attended mental health counseling and their analyst certifies they're no longer a threat to themselves or others, said district Superintendent David Marston.

While state law requires expulsion for bomb threats, it does so only for grade 6 and up, and for no more than 180 days. Despite West Branch-Rose City's stern response, no parent or community member criticized administrators for overreacting, authorities said.

To the contrary, at board disciplinary hearings and parent meetings held across the district last fall, community members rallied around administrators' refusal to respond lightly.

"As a parent I was definitely concerned," said Julie Roberto, a West Branch coffee shop owner with children in middle and high schools. "All my friends were. I knew they were pranks, but even so, kids don't deserve to feel threatened by other children. I was glad the board did what it did. If kids aren't held accountable now, how are they suddenly going to become accountable when they're 18?"

Even the offenders' parents, school board members said, supported the school board's decisions.

"Judging by parents' reaction," Zimmerman said, "they understood this was a big deal. There were a lot of grounded kids. I don't know their punishments exactly, but these kids weren't going home to play video games."

Lessons for everyone

Whether or not parents themselves will face legal penalties remains to be seen, prosecutors said. But Ogemaw Family Court did order in-home detention for every child last fall. That means the expelled students haven't been able to leave their homes without a parent or guardian, and won't, at least until sentencing. Court officers visit the offenders at home routinely to ensure compliance, prosecutors said.

Whether or not the offenders have learned from their mistakes, school and legal authorities say they've learned several lessons. Their most successful tool, for example, was a partnered response with prosecutors, detectives and juvenile officers. The group held school-wide assemblies in middle and high school buildings, even as the bomb threats were occurring.

Their message: Making a bomb threat isn't a joke, it's a felony. And felonies follow people, keeping them from getting hired by most employers. Depending on a child's age, too, a felony lands many kids in a detention center.

Students saw, too, that while such hoaxes may stall school, no test or lesson gets lost. The school's education mission continues even if extended into June, administrators said.

"Using the situation to educate our students was one of the best things we did," said Superintendent Marston. "They know the law on it, they know the seriousness, and they know the consequences - that if they threaten the student body, they won't be part of the student body."

The best evidence that the message hit home is that bomb threats have ceased since last October's spate, authorities said. The challenge will be to keep student awareness about threat consequences fresh enough to prevent future scares, Marston added.

For the five children awaiting sentencing, the consequences remain all too tangible. Yet their felony pleas carry some hope. First, rather than facing 20-year felonies for engaging in terrorist activity, as initially charged, the five pleaded down to four-year felonies of making a false bomb threat.

Secondly, if the children avoid trouble for eight months, the court will remove their felony convictions, leaving only a misdemeanor to taint their record.

The reason for leniency, prosecutors say, is that no child charged had a prior juvenile history.

"It would have been a whole different story if any of them had been frequent fliers," said Assistant Ogemaw Prosecutor Scott Williams. "All five of them also cooperated with investigators."

The first child's sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 26. Without state mandated guidelines for juvenile criminals, sentencing discretion lies entirely with Ogemaw Probate Judge Shana Lambourn.

Lambourn, who declined an interview, met recently with prosecutors and juvenile officers.

"The judge didn't want them to hang a felony on some of these kids," said Williams, explaining the eight-month conviction delay. "They're so young, and they hadn't been in trouble until now. They're basically getting the chance to work their felonies off."

Prosecutors expect the offenders to at least face community service and to pay court fines and costs.

"All five were offered the same plea bargain, but they won't all get the same sentence," Williams said. "Sentences will vary depending on age and circumstances."